On the fringe: Shawna Shea Film Festival keeps growing

Joshua Lyford

Thursday

Sep 27, 2018 at 12:01 AM

The Shawna Shea Film Festival is entering its seventh year and has seen significant growth since its inception. The independent festival has a distinct focus and, in holding with the memory of its namesake, will always remain in the fringe. The four-day film festival takes place throughout Central Massachusetts, with venues in both Worcester and Southbridge, from Oct. 3-6.

“It all goes back to honoring Shawna,” explained organizer and founder Skip Shea, whose daughter was the impetus for the festival. Shawna Shea died in a car accident in 1999 when she was 16. “Expanding the arts definitely and the fact that regardless of the larger films, this remains fringe. That’s where she was. She hung out on the sides. There’s no way I am going anyplace else. It’s where we belong, it’s where we are comfortable. We are a fringe festival.”

Shea is seated in the back of a Worcester Starbucks. Though the festival is fast-approaching, there is still work to be done.

“This takes a lot of time and we’re still doing it. I just did another blast of ticket sales,” he said. “It starts with asking for submission, then we have a close date. We have to watch all the movies and send out what’s accepted and rejected, which is always hard to do. This year, because of the two venues in Southbridge and Bull Mansion, we’re showing 68 movies.”

Shea is a busy man. Following his interview, he is off to work on a folk-horror film he wrote and is in the process of directing, called “Seeds,” featuring “The Strangers” actor Kip Weeks and “Suspiria” actress Barbara Magnolfi. In spite of this, Shea can’t help but be excited for the festival created in memory of his daughter.

“We’re at four days, three locations. That is insane,” he said. “That’s very big. One is in Worcester, the Bull Mansion, the others are in Southbridge. They’re unbelievably supportive.”

The festival kicks off Oct. 3 at Worcester’s Bull Mansion, with a screening of Jenn Wexler’s “The Ranger,” about a group of punk teens trying to survive a brutal park ranger.

“‘The Ranger’ opened this year at South by Southwest,” explained Shea. “It played Fantasia in Montreal. It just played Fright Fest in London. These are the world’s largest genre festivals and it’s selling out at them.”

Wexler’s film is one of many made by women to be featured at the Central Massachusetts film festival, a point that is in the spirit of the Shawna Shea Memorial Foundation’s mission statement.

“Fifty-two percent of them are made by women,” said Shea. “I think it’s because it seems to be what we’re known for. I also think that a lof the complaints I’ve heard, not many, or maybe just one film was shown by a woman at the Venice Film Festival. They say that women make fewer movies, but obviously, they don’t. We did a spring festival, just a one-day thing of shorts, and over 60 percent were made by women. It was amazing. That’s kind of what we want. Expand our mission to go beyond film to support women in all of the arts.”

On Oct. 4-6, the hosting duties are shared by two Southbridge venues: Starlite Gallery, 39 Hamilton St., and the Quinebaug Valley Council for the Arts and Humanities, 111 Main St. On Oct. 4, The Starlite Gallery will hold a program of shorts, feature “The Graveyard Gang,” with an educational program held at the QVCAH, followed by a feature film screening of “Good Day” and “Do it Man: The Story of the Celebrity Club.”

“We have some really interesting documentaries this year,” said Shea. “One has a local tie, the story of the Celebrity Club. Apparently, in the ’50s, there was a jazz club in Providence that was interracial. This was like the only club. The bands would play for a week, and sometimes they didn’t have all of their musicians with them and these local guys would fill in. Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington. No one really knows this story. That’s another local film and it’s great.”

On Friday, Oct. 5, the Starlite will host a program of shorts followed by “Hablar Con Los Muertos,” a horror feature, and “The God Inside My Ear.” QVCAH will host a selection of shorts, followed by a program of short documentary films.

Saturday, Oct. 6 will feature a significant amount of programing, with family time at noon at Starlite, followed by Luigi Cozz’s “The Little Wizards of Oz,” a collection of shorts, and “Survival of the Film Freaks,” followed by more short films. The QVCAH will host a block of experimental shorts and the feature film “Bent on Somnolence” by local filmmakers.

“Bull Mansion, Starlite, The Art Center, these aren’t traditional venues to show films and we want to keep it that way,” said Shea. “In a way, it makes the art of film more accessible and opens people’s minds to different ways of seeing things. People are getting entertainment in different ways now. I think we can do more. To have a horror block at a place like Starlight, or upstairs at Bull Mansion, these are funky places to show art.”

For more information, head to shawnasheaff.org, shawnafoundation.org. To buy tickets, visit filmfreeway.com.